Stronger than Hate? We Need to Prove it Now
Five years ago, Pittsburgh was shocked by the horrifying acts of a hate-filled gunman who murdered 11 people and injured many others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill.
On October 7, just 20 days before the five-year anniversary of that mass killing in Pittsburgh, the world was shocked when Hamas terrorists savagely brutalized and murdered 1,400 people of all ages in Israel, including 33 Americans.
The attack sparked an immediate war between Israel and Hamas, leading to Israeli airstrikes, an invasion of the Gaza Strip, and mounting deaths in Gaza, including thousands of non-combatants. In the U.S., the overseas actions have led to an alarming rise in anti-Semitism.
Because of the Tree of Life murders, Pittsburgh has a head start in efforts to guard that such anti-Semitism never happens here again. After the 2018 shooting, attorney Laura Ellsworth called her former law professor (and former Pitt Chancellor) Mark Nordenberg, and said, “Mark, we need to make sure that Pittsburgh becomes better-known for the ways in which it responded to the attack and not just as its site. The best way to do that is to start the biggest and best anti-hate conference in the world and headquarter it here in Pittsburgh.” Together, the duo, with Ellsworth as the driving force, created the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, and in late September, the third annual summit featured 45 specific sessions with more than 350 speakers.
Especially in the aftermath of Oct. 7 and anti-Semitic threats across America, we need to stand up and make sure Jews in Pittsburgh are and feel safe. We must make sure that a horrific event like the Tree of Life massacre does not happen here again. It’s everyone’s responsibility – from our elected leaders including the Mayor, County Executive and our Congressional leaders to every day citizens – to guard against anti-Semitism.
From Fallingwater to the polio vaccine to UPMC and much more, Pittsburgh Jews have contributed disproportionately to Pittsburgh’s success. We need them. If another terrible event were to happen here, it would be a disaster for this region. Pittsburgh cannot afford to lose its Jewish citizens by becoming a place where they don’t feel safe and welcome.
A journalistic innovator, Heuck has been writing about Pittsburgh for 37 years, as an investigative reporter and business editor at The Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette and as the founder of Pittsburgh Quarterly. His newspaper projects ranged from living on the streets disguised as a homeless man to penning the only comprehensive profile in the latter years of polio pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk to creating a statistical means of judging regional progress that has led to similar projects across the country. Heuck's work has won numerous national, state and local writing awards. His work has been cited in the landmark media law case "Food Lion vs. ABC news."
